


Predator: Amnesia

by AlphaLima1980, elven_prophecy



Series: Yaksa Saga [3]
Category: Aliens vs Predators Series - Various Authors, Predator (Yautja) & Related Fandoms, Predator Original Series (1987-1990)
Genre: F/M, Kidnapping, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:28:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24609919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaLima1980/pseuds/AlphaLima1980, https://archiveofourown.org/users/elven_prophecy/pseuds/elven_prophecy
Summary: She woke up in a world it's not hers, not knowing who she was or where she came from. Now, trapped in an alien planet with a creature who kept her as a pet and named her Mud, she must find her true origin and a way back home.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Yautja (Predator)/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Yaksa Saga [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957873
Comments: 33
Kudos: 35
Collections: Yautja Prime Prompt Meme





	1. THE BEAST THAT WALKED LIKE A MAN

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [FiSouthpaw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiSouthpaw/pseuds/FiSouthpaw) in the [Yautja_Prompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Yautja_Prompts) collection. 



> This is a short story claim from a prompt made by FiSouthpaw for a Planet of the Apes-like predator story. He/She wanted a kidnapped human with amnesia stranded in a predator world. Here I'm using a young Ice Age woman, She's a dark brunette Magdalenian Cro-Magnon, with black hair, dreadlocks and hazelnut eyes.

-“Who am I?”

That was the first thing that went through the young woman's mind when she opened her eyes. She couldn't remember anything from her past life, where she came from or who she was, but she was sure that was not her place.

First of all, she was in an illuminated room, with walls covered in pictograms made from a translucent material, the walls glowed in an orange light. Second, the air felt strange, with a slight rancid smell. She gasped breathlessness, as when you climb a very high mountain... " _How can I remember the lack of air up in the mountains?_ " She asked herself.

Slowly, she sat up in the bed, and immediately felt a throbbing pain in both legs, her back also ached. Upon examining herself, she saw strange bandages covering the part of the leg which hurts, and underneath these a blue gelatinous substance was covering four large scratches on her skin.

The color of the liquid reminded her of when the sea shone at night. “How can I remember the color of the sea at night?”

She heard a strange clicking somewhere in the half-lit room and with narrowed eyes she saw the glow of two yellow eyes at the end of the room. Suddenly, she felt an adrenaline rush. She didn't know why, but she had vague memories of yellow eyes lurking in the dark, followed by screams, the smell of blood and death. The girl trembled.

The clicking became more intense and it was when the girl saw a fairly humanoid figure standing motionless in front of her. He was taller and more muscular than her, with a yellow-greenish skin covered in dark grey spots. Sharp teeth adorned his mouth and his hands had black claws at the tip of each one of the five fingers. His yellow eyes were placed in sunken eye sockets, surrounded by short quills. His hair… if that was hair, they was braided into dreadlocks like hers, adorned with metal rings at regular intervals.

She freaked out; instinct warned her to stay away from anything with yellow eyes, sharp claws and fangs; but the creature walked on two legs like her, not four. It wasn’t an animal, the creature was wearing clothes; furthermore, as far as she knew wild animals’ reaction to humans was limited to two things: fleeing or killing, not looking curiously. She calmed down but remained alert… just in case.

The humanoid made a clicking sound by moving its set of four mandibles.

-“ _Is it a He or a She? Why am I sure it is a He?_ ” she wondered.

She assumed the humanoid was male because it had a bare torso, and his crotch was covered by a metallic protector. For the rest, he wore a leather loincloth and a bone necklace, over a body mesh.

The creature clicked again, but she remained silent, not understanding. Then the creature consulted a strange metallic object that was on his wrist and immediately, he spoke with a voice that sounded metallic and guttural. Her head ached again, those voices, now she could understand them, but they were vaguely familiar voices. “ _Clan leader? Grandsire?_ ” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

-“Can you understand me?” the humanoid asked and she nodded.

-“Yes…” She said, and then he asked “Where am I? Who am I?”

The creature didn’t responded, instead it passed her a bowl with something nasty looking inside, he smelled it and made a gesture of disgust, but the creature insisted, this time, with a feminine voice " _Eat, it's good for you_ " She really didn't want to eat that, but her stomach growled with hunger and she eventually accepted it. It wasn't too bad after all. It was a familiar taste but she couldn’t recall it.

-“What is this?” she asked again.

-“ _You ask too many questions, Little One_ ” the creature responded with the voice she recognized as Clan leader. “ _Here, dress up_ ”

Only now, she noticed she was wearing only a silken loincloth covering her genitals, her small breasts were exposed; instinctively she covered them but the creature didn’t seem bothered about her smooth cinnamon colored skin. “ _Where are my clothes?_ ” She wondered about the woolly mammoth fur parka that protected her from the cold and immediately questions flooded her mind again. How did she know what a woolly mammoth was and how did she know it was cold where she lived?

Her head ached from thinking, so she decided to finish the meal and after that she dressed in the thin cape and leather belt he offered to her, and then followed the creature after he gestured.

They passed through a corridor that showed different objects inside niches on the walls. She recognized some of them as weapons. Some of the niches also contained skulls of different shapes and sizes, some of them clearly human.

Seeing the skulls made her fell distressed, she had a vague memory of bones scattered across a cavern floor, meat pieces, blood and a putrid odor. The lair of a wild beast... she remembered, and again wondered if the strange creature in front of her was not a predator that had learned to use tools and to speak like its prey. She touched her face, feeling her own bones under the skin, wondering if she would end the same way.

\- "Don’t worry, that is not your fate" the humanoid said, pushing her away from the niche with one hand on her back. She noted that each time he spoke, he resorted less and less to mimicking and used his own voice.

When they went outside, the first thing she noticed is that it was very hot, too much for her taste. She discovered the reason when she looked up at the sky and saw two bright suns.

-“Where am I?”

-“My home” The tall humanoid said.

She looked around, towards the horizon where the suns were setting, a large expanse of orange water stretched, to her right, he saw that they were near the coast and the black sand gave rise to a dense jungle of blue-green colors and to her left were high mountains of ocher-colored with no vegetation on them.

She thought about escaping, looking for a place where she could run and hide. The closest trees were about 100 steps from where she was.

-“I would not try to run away. There are dangerous beasts out there in the jungle.” He warned, guessing the female’s intentions.

-“I want to go home… my home!” she cried. “Although I don't remember where it is”

-“This is your home now.” the creature's voice rang in his ears.

\- o -


	2. MUD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to elven_prophecy for the Edit...

The huge creature roared again. The girl cowered in a corner, unsure what would happen next. Over the next moon cycles, she had learned little of the humanoid culture. They were hunters, but not the typical hunters she knew from her home world, whom hunted for food and sustenance, for clothing and housing materials. No, they are thrill-seeking hunters, stalking and killing the most dangerous game they could find.

They were an incredibly advanced civilization but yet, primitive and savage in manners. The initial courtesy, with which the creature had presented itself when the girl had woken up, soon faded away and his carefully chosen words among the familiar voices were reverted once more to grunts and jaws clicking, almost unintelligible to the girl.

She could only hazard a couple guesses as to why he was roaring now. Her hesitation or tardiness in completing a task, an offense he had reprimanded her for in the past, or an offensive gesture she had unknowingly committed with her posture. She was never sure why, she just understood that she was there to serve him as entertainment and hunting aide, no better than a _R’ga_ _Z’van_.

-“I’m Sorry, Roarr” the girl apologized with a trembling voice and making the submission sign with her left arm.

-“Use the ceremonial knife to remove the _R’daya_ , don’t forget that, _N’vara_ ” He explained again, gesturing and showing the correct way to wield the knife.

She had called him Roarr because she failed at pronounce the Creature’s real name, she lacked the mouthparts needed to make the right clicking sounds, so she decided to call it Roarr, like the sound he made when angry or impatient, similar to that of the wild beasts that inhabited her world. " _Damn, how can I remember details and not something as personal as my own name?_ "

The name he gave her because her own was lost meant Mud, and the reason for him to name her like that was because what happened the same day she’d woken up in that strange planet, after the Hunter warned her not to escape to the jungle, she had tried anyway.

\- o –

**Two Nak'stras prior**

-"This is your home now" she felt a lump in her throat when hearing those words. It meant that she would never see her mother, her grandsire, the Clan leader ... or any other _Nara_ again.

No, she had to escape now, far from the beast that had brought here, far from this new reality, far… The humanoid hunter was distracted on his trophy gallery; he took one of the skulls from a niche. It was strangely familiar; the forehead was not rounded like hers, but flatter and had a bulge over the black sockets where the eyes should be. A word came to her mind: _Va'Nara_ , The other people that shared her world. The Hunter stroked the skull with one of his black nailed, scaly hands from the forehead to the lower jaw, while making a clicking sound, She could only imagine what the fighting would have been like, the _Va'Nara_ s were strong and able to withstand a great deal of pain, and they were good at hand-to-hand combat...

She ran as fast as she could towards the jungle, the ground was spongy, wet and hot. She was grateful for this since she was barefoot, in her home world this would have meant that she would not have gotten very far.

The jungle thickened just as she heard a roar, the humanoid had noticed her escape and was surely after her. The air was hot, burning her lungs and making her cough as she ran faster. Panic gave her feet wings, gave her the ability to ignore the pains, her vision narrowing, focusing only on escape. The jungle kept her from seeing more than five steps ahead; suddenly she tripped and fell into a muddy pool.

-“Puajj” she exclaimed, wiping mud off her tongue. She tried to get out of the puddle, but the more she fought the more she was stuck there. The hunter's roars sounded closer.

She cornered behind a thick root and remained still. Completely covered by the muck, only her eyes were barely visible. After a few moments, the hunter appeared above her on the trees. She saw that he was wearing a mask of a shiny material, with markings similar to tattoos on the face of Clan Leader.

-“WheRRe RR U?” her own voice came from the hunter, although it sounded odd.

She did not answer, the hunter searched the surroundings and there was even an occasion that he looked directly where she was, but for some reason he didn’t see her. The hunter jumped from one branch to another and looked again, could not find it. Then he disappeared, jumping from tree to tree.

She remained still for a while; her plan was to wait until the suns were low over the horizon so she could continue. The heat of the day was unbearable and would advance further during twilight and at night. But several hours passed and the day seemed not to end, the two suns had barely moved on the sky, shining like the eyes of an angry god.

She slept a long time, still halfway submerged in the mud that appeased the heat, her head resting on a stone. A long time passed, and the next time she opened her eyes, the suns had finally begun preparing to hide behind a distant mountain. To get her bearings, she decided that it was best to look for high ground; she thought she saw a path that criss-crossed the mountain and followed it.

When she had climbed the slope, the suns had already hidden but three gigantic moons took their place so she had no trouble navigating in the dark. She heard noises in the undergrowth and became alert. Had the Hunter found her? Hadn’t she been careful enough at covering her tracks?

But what emerged from the bushes wasn’t the Hunter or any other of his kind, but a young _Nara_ , covered in mud just like her own clothes of fur and giant leaves. He was picking fruit from a nearby bush, and she saw several small lizard-like animals hanging on his belt.

\- "Hello," she said in her language.

The boy turned and was paralyzed. Maybe he didn't expect to find anyone around, she got closer.

\- "Can you understand me? Hello?"

The boy stepped back, dropped the fruits, and ran.

-"Wait, wait!" she screamed and ran after him, but the boy soon disappeared into the thick jungle.

" _So there are other Naras around here in this strange world. Obviously that boy didn't collect food for himself_ " she thought. That gave her a little hope, maybe they could tell her where she came from and why she had been brought here.

The crunch of dry leaves broke the silence of the night again and for a moment she thought the boy had returned. She was wrong.

From the jungle a strange, quadruped beast with large fangs emerged. The first thing she saw were the eyes, four orange eyes with slit-like black pupils and a mouth full of sharp conical teeth, as well as two extra fang-like jaws. Over its neck it had black appendages similar to the Hunter's dreadlocks, like a mane and emitted a mix of sounds of grunts, gurgling and clicking similar to those of the hunter.

She backed away slowly; the beast crouched ready to launch the attack.

-"Easy… Easy…"

The beast gave a terrifying roar and something activated in the girl's brain, the memory of a huge beast smashing in, broken stone spears, breaking bones and blood... a lot of blood.

"Not again!" she screamed and raised her hands to cover herself from the death she knew was inevitable.

\- "Aaaaaaaghhhh!" her scream stopped when death didn’t come.

He was there, between her and the beast with a spear in one hand and strange blades in the other. He and the predator fought savagely, claws and teeth versus spear and knives. Grunts and growls echoing in the jungle until finally the humanoid hunter emerged triumphant, a blood-covered silver moon with spikes all around it in his hand. The animal's head dropped to the ground with a disgusting wet sound.

\- "You... you saved me" she said.

He roared in response, his head tilting, his arms spreading wide, sending bright orange blood splattering everywhere as he stepped into it heavily.

\- "You saved me–" she repeated.

The hunter grabbed her by the neck and watched her. The mud had dried and some pieces were falling.

\- " _N'vara_ " he rumbled, his voice throaty.

-"What?" She asked, not understanding.

He took her muddy hair, which looked like dreadlocks.

\- " _N'vara_ " He repeated, and collected mud and rubbed it in his arms, as if explaining the concept

\- "N'vaarrrra?" she mimicked, emphasizing the sound.

\- "U ... _N'vara_ " pointed at her. Then she realized that she had given her a name and that it meant "Covered in mud"

\- "C-come..." he said, and without waiting for her, he took the head of the beast and walked back to his home.

\- o –

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh right, I’m back! I hope you enjoy this one and don’t forget to comment. Here’s a glossary:
> 
> R’ga Z’van. Hound, tracker dog  
> R’daya. Heart  
> N’vara. Muddy, covered in mud  
> Nak'Stra. Lunar cycle, Month  
> Ancient human language:  
> Nara. Human, how humanity call themselves  
> Va’Nara. Ape man. How Homo sapiens Cro-Magnon calls Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, Neanderthal


	3. THE DREAM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: The following chapter include Sexual content.
> 
> Thanks to elven_prophecy for her extensive editing.

Two  _ Nak’Stra _ had passed since N'vara had arrived on the planet. She was no longer a terrified woman, she still couldn't remember her name or her true origin, but Roarr had given a new meaning to her life. She could now track, stalk and kill most of the creatures in the hunting ground, except those predators in the jungle. She could craft crude weapons and make a type of stew but there was still much to learn.

From what she had learned from the past lunar cycles, Roarr was apparently a high-ranking warrior, he could take certain liberties. It seemed to her the Old warrior was bored and teaching one of those little  _ Nara _ the ways of the hunters was an interesting challenge. It was not easy and he was unforgiving. She understood that by passing the initiation trial, she could travel out of this world and possibly back to her own so she accepted.

N’vara layed on her bed, sweating by every pore of her body even though the night air was cool. The multi-colored blankets and sheets didn’t help either in keeping her fresh, despite her not using them. The heat, even in the long nights, was unbearable for her but if she dared to sleep outside, bloodsucking insects as big as dragonflies would drain her blood in less than an hour. She resigned herself, and with a deep sigh, eventually fell asleep.

\- o -

She was by a river bank, following a trail left by a deer. The tracks were freshly cast on the murky shore; she noticed the berry-sized droppings ahead and smooshed one in her hand, it was soft. She did not know how long she followed after the animal, moving silently in the brush. Deer were notoriously skittish, and spooked easily. If she wanted to eat tonight, she had to make no noise. Her belly rumbled just as she finally spotted a large buck up ahead, her prey, grazing on the tall grass.

She took a few small, dry leaves and dropped them. " _ Good, the wind is in my favor, _ " she thought, and then she took some of the dung, mixed it with black mud from the river and smeared it on her face to disguise her odor.

She creeped a little closer, crawling up a rock where she could throw her bone-tipped spear. She had barely scaled the rock when she heard a chirping behind her and turned around very slowly to not alert her prey.

_ He _ was there. His brown skin, lithe form, hazel eyes and short black beard had clouded her judgement all season, already she felt her body warming at his presence. She smiled and he smiled back. " _ Well, I won't have to carry it on my own back to camp. _ "

She came down from the rock to where he was and asked in a low voice: "What are you doing here?"

-"I was looking for stone for my tools," he said, showing her the pieces of flint he had collected, "Manu told me that there was good quality by the river, and I saw your footprints... I would recognize those little feet even on solid rock. What are YOU doing here?"

She put a hand over his mouth, suggesting for him to lower his voice, then she motioned with her hand the still oblivious animal, in case he had not seen it, and pointed to his spear. He understood her gestures and he pulled out his bone-tipped weapon and a wooden  _ atlatl _ .

-“On my mark,” she signaled, using her fingers to count, “one… two… three… mark!”

They moved as one, both launching their bone-tipped projectiles at once. Hers hit the buck in the neck and before the deer could sprint, his pierced its heart; it shrieked, a dying sound that echoed in the forest, before it fell over and died. They ran towards their fallen prey.

-“You find it, it’s yours,” the young man said, “Pick your share.”

-“Who told you I want to share?” she joked, “Come… help me.”

They dragged the animal back to the riverbank, where they used flint knives to skin and clean the buck, the task took them about an hour and they both ended up covered in blood. Not that they cared much for the stains, but the smell of blood might attract some predators. They were about to wash themselves when the thunder was heard. Cumulonimbus had been accumulating during the day and it seemed that a storm was approaching.

-"Come on,” he urged, “We must find shelter quickly!"

-"Can we go back to camp, _ Yuva _ ?"

-”We’re too far," he raised his face to the darkening sky, "we will not make it with the deer, we need to take what we can and move.”

They ran for a nearby cliff where at its base there was a cave with a wide entrance, perfect for a temporary shelter. A strong, cold rain began to pelter them just as they reached the vicinity of the cave. The water dripped down their faces and backs, and their clothes were soaked, but at least it had washed the dirt and blood from them. Yuva had been right, they would have never reached the camp in time, and darkness was fast approaching. Her stomach rumbled again as they began preparing for the night, he built a small fire just at the entrance of the cave.

The yellow light from the fire illuminated the travertine walls of the cave, pieces of meat were slowly cooked and smoked on wooden sticks; they ate some to calm their hunger. The last light of day went out moments later, leaving only the glow of lightning as it forked across the thick clouds.

Yuva stood guard at the entrance to the cave, the worst of the storm had passed, but  _ Vasri  _ Isya’s older son was angry, hammering on his war drum could still be heard across the sky. Then, a glare caught his attention and he looked up to the sky. A bright object pierced through the clouds, leaving a streak of white-yellow flames in its wake. 

-“Did you see that!” he exclaimed.

She caught a glimpse of the object before it disappeared behind a nearby mountain.

-“Do you think it was a sign from  _ Isya _ ?” she whispered.

-”Maybe… I don't know,” he responded, “I’m just a hunter.  _ Mahmuni _ is the only one who knows the designs of the Goddess.”

-”We could ask him when we’re back at the camp,” she said, “Maybe she had seen it too. It fell not too far from the camp.”

-”Maybe…” Yuva responded, tossing another wood piece to the fire. “It's late. I’ll take the first watch, meanwhile you could sleep while the fire dries our clothes.”

-”Sure, so you can see me naked. Is that what you want?” She commented with a smile, slapping him on his shoulder.

-”Promise not to…” he smirked, as he removed his shirt made of soft leather stitched together by tendons and bone needle.

She noted Yuva’s muscular body, his tribal tattoos, and a scar on his back. A warm sensation ran through her body like lightning, focusing intensely on her loins. She removed her suede robe; Yuva tried to keep his promise but he couldn’t. He looked sideways at the half-naked young woman. Her breasts were small and firm, her dark brown dreadlocks fell over them covering the nipples. He smiled to himself.

She was not sleepy. Maybe she could stay with him a while watching the rain. She curled up next to Yuva. Feeling the warmth of the young woman's body behind him, he turned and smiled at her.

\- "Grandsire will not be happy with this... Not without waiting for the summer ceremony, _ "  _ Yuva warned her, they had been flirting since spring but sexual relationships for unmarried couples were only allowed during the summer Solstice ceremony which would be in a few days.

\- "What Grandsire doesn’t know will not hurt him," she said, winking.

She leaned closer to Yuva's body, and kissed him. No more convincing work was needed; Yuva ran his tongue over her body very slowly, starting slowly down her neck, pausing momentarily to play with her small breasts crowned by hard chestnut-colored nipples. She writhed with pleasure when Yuva dipped his fingers under the leather loincloth and massaged the small lump between nether lips. Then they got rid of the rest of their garments.

“By  _ Isya _ !” Yuva's erect member was just as she had imagined. She wrapped her fingers around its hot length, and stroked it, Yuva grunted and responded by sinking his teeth in the lobe of her ear, just this side of too hard before moaning against her throat.

She wanted him and couldn't wait any longer for the Solstice ceremony. She wasn’t a virgin, her initiation into pleasures had been two seasons ago, but she had never been with Yuva.

He spread her legs and slowly thrusted his  _ zakti _ into her, and she moaned slightly; she moaned slightly in response to the delicious pain the member produced in her wet  _ dnika _ .

He moved gently first but after a one or two moments of interpreting his companion's moans of pleasure, he squatted her and then mounted her from behind, curling his big body over her back. His fingers dug into her hips, holding her still as he pumped forcefully into her.

She was pleasantly surprised at the young man’s stamina, her friends had always laughed and teased at how long their lovers actually endure. Yuva was dedicated to what he was doing without being rude or brutish; he measured each movement and alternated stroking her breasts, her back or her  _ Visve _ , delaying the final moment.

There was a pressure building in her loins, her mind was lost to the feeling of pleasure. His movements became frantic, his grunts joining with her cries. She felt Yuva's member discharge his essence inside her, overflowing out of her  _ dnika _ and trickling down her legs. She moaned, the long drawn out sound unmistakable before the young man fell beside her, still shuddering. She kissed him once more and they lay for a moment before falling asleep.

\- o -

She woke up covered in a film of cold sweat.

-“Was it just a dream?” she exclaimed, but she immediately hesitated, “Or it wasn’t?”

The experience was so vivid that it was more like if she was reliving a past event. “ _ Was it a memory of her past life? What happened to Yuva and the others? _ ” She struggled to remember, but the effort caused her head ache.

And once again, she felt the crushing loneliness, but more acute than ever before. A solitary tear rolled down her cheek as she grasped at the dying vision in her mind.

_ Who was she...? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you need it, here's a Glossary, because I'm using two different languages here. One for the predators (Yaksa), and one for the Stone age humans (Naras).
> 
> Yaksa words:  
> Nak'Stra - Moon cycle, Month
> 
> Nara words:  
> Manu - Wise (name)  
> Yuva - Young-man-in-training (name)  
> Vasri - Thunderbolt, God of rain and thunder  
> Isya - Moon, Goddess of moon and fertility  
> zakti - penis  
> dnika - vagina  
> visve - clit, pearl


	4. THE MARKET

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to elven_prophecy for her extensive editing.

-"That dream was strange," she licked her lips, her eyes staring at her companion intently, "It felt so real," she paused as she recalled the vivid details, "I can still hear the sounds of the forest, but i can't remember my own name..." she trailed off, lost in the recesses of her mind. She was telling Roarr about the dream she had last night, but the warrior seemed uninterested.

He was polishing a round, domed skull he took from his trophy display. It was similar to those of the  _ Va’Nara  _ or her own but larger. Roarr had told her it belonged to a creature called a  _ Deva _ .

-”Where did you find me? You know where I am from, right?” she asked, curiosity was killing her. The old warrior completely ignored her question as he ran a talon deliberately along the brow bone of his trophy. It was a few moments before he turned his large head in her direction.

-"Come with me, there are pieces to sell." He pointed to a pile of animal skins, some covered in thick black wool, while others seemed  _ familiar _ . She came closer to see it in detail: It was tan, very similar to her own, in the center it wore a tribal tattoo, the stylized shape of a four-legged animal and a long tail with a thick mane on its head. It took her only a moment to realize that it was human skin, stretched out and placed in a rack.

-"Does this belong to my people?!” She snarled, her face twisted angrily as Roarr grabbed the pelts and left in silence, " _ Answer me! _ " N'vara followed him.

Roarr stepped out into the light of the suns, he circled the whitish stone  _ façade _ , and headed for the platform at the top of the hill. Before going upstairs, he waited for N'vara to catch up and signaled to the small woman to stop.

He took out a metal device and locked it around N'vara's neck. She recognized it. After her little adventure in the jungle, Roarr had put the collar on and explained that it was to know its location, also if she went too long the necklace would kill her, N'vara did not want to test it. It had taken her a whole moon cycle to regain Roarr's trust and now he only used the device when they traveled outside his island.

-”We’re are we going?” she asked.

\- "Uu... No... going away," he said, his tusks clicking together.

Parked on the platform was Roarr's ship. To her eyes it looked like one of those huge pink fish that lived in the rivers near the camp... She felt her head throb again as details about her world came to mind. Her fingers moved of their own volition, rubbing at her temple, easing a forming headache.

Unwillingly, she was drawn back to the first time, she had boarded this thing, conscious. Roarr had sat in front of some strange artifacts that N'vara hadn’t known what they were for. There had been lights like that of the luminous insects that plagued the night, and a great thunderous roar as though  _ Vasri _ was angry, shaking the very walls. The ground had shifted, and she had made her way unsteadily to a small window. Her jaw dropped and so did her stomach. She had felt within the realm of  _ Belu _ , the great Eagle. “For  _ Isya _ !” she had exclaimed, with a mixture of awe and fear at the same time.

She was drawn back from her memories by the rumble of the ship’s thrusters. It took off and headed for the rising suns, the house, the jungle and the mountain where she had seen the young  _ Nara _ became smaller and soon they were left behind.

The journey did not last long, a blessing and a curse for both fear and exhilaration pulsed in her body in flight, and they were soon descending on a large settlement, in the middle of tall mountains. N'vara looked out the window at the huge buildings of the Citadel, in the center there was a great mass of stone as big as a rounded hill. The stench assaulted her as soon as she went down the ramp. Her nose stung, it was like Roarr's strong aroma, but ten times worse .

She saw that it was full of other beings like Roarr, although with different skin colorations and ornaments. There were yellowish-green with black spots, reddish brown and although some seemed small, they easily surpassed N'vara by one head. His attention was drawn to a huge specimen with skin and dreadlocks red as ocher, iron rings dangled from his jaws.

-”Grrrrooar” The humanoid growled at the small woman staring at him. Roarr noticed and dragged N'vara away from him.

-”Keep your face down and don't stare at them, it's an insult,” he ordered.

She looked at Roarr hesitantly, but the seriousness on the Hunter's face made her look down. In fact, across the street, she saw two of the beasts lying at the feet of their master, a yellow skinned hunter with black stripes who was selling blood-dripping meat from carcasses hung from hooks on his shop. He stroked the head of one of the animals that corresponded with a slight purr. The humanoid offered him a piece of greenish meat and the animal gulped it down. " _ No, I am less than an animal to them _ "

She followed Roarr's steps through the streets. Even though he walked slowly, he had the largest stride, N'vara had trouble keeping up with him and often lagged behind, Roarr stopped and rushed her.

-"Hurry up. This place is dangerous for you," he clicked.

N’vara wondered why he had brought her to this place. Why hadn’t he left her at home? This had to be a test of some kind. Their culture, she had noticed, were all about testing themselves and others constantly .

-”I have some skins here," Roarr said to a large humanoid with long spines on his chin very similar to a beard that was in front of the hut they had stopped at. There were numerous artifacts made of leather and the same shiny material that covered Roarr's clothing.

The elder examined the pile of furs, stopping to admire some of the tattoos on them.

-"As usual, your pelts are of excellent quality,  _ Kau'tika, _ " he remarked, pronouncing the last syllables with a click of his jaws.

N’vara had heard that word before, and not in reference to her hunter, so she knew it wasn't his name. She assumed it was either his title or his profession, something attributed to others like him in general. He had never minded her calling him Roarr, which was good for she did not know his real name. She understood she would never be able to pronounce it even if she knew it, she lacked the necessary mouthpieces.

Roarr and the old man from the store engaged in an exchange of anecdotes as they examined the merchandise. The heat and humidity inside the establishment began to be unbearable for the woman. She was drenched in sweat and she had the feeling that the old man disliked her smell, he kept huffing and snorting when he glanced her way subtlety.

Suddenly, her mouth felt dry and she looked for a source of water. She had seen a small waterfall that fell into a stone pool at the other edge of the plaza, obviously it was where the  _ Ka'Dghas _ and  _ Z'van _ drank, but she didn't mind. She calculated the distance and deduced that it was within the range of the necklace, at about twenty times her own height.

She headed there and dipped her head into the crystal clear water and as she pulled it out, the water splashed onto her shoulders and back, refreshing her. After this she clasped her hands together like a vessel, collected the liquid, and drank it.

A clicking sound behind her made her turn. One of the warriors stood there, his skin was a dark brown with black mottling, his armor was reddish in color, and a tannish leather loincloth covered his genital area. On one side of his belt fell a mesh with two  _ Nara  _ skulls, and on the other a strange dagger that at first seemed to be yellowish stone, but she quickly recognized that it was bone.

-"Look at me!" he growled when she averted the gaze, as Roarr had instructed her.

N'vara kept her stare down, so as not to insult him. The skulls on his belt and the jaw piece that decorated his mask told her that it wasn't a good idea to piss off the fierce-looking humanoid.

She made the submission sign, raising her right arm with her outstretched palm. The giant slapped her hand away.

-"I said: Look at me!" he repeated, "You don't look like a  _ M'Rkata. _ "

Had he just called her an ape? She was offended, though she did not show it. She could have guessed that Roarr’s people had a very low opinion of her kind, the  _ Naras _ , she hadn’t needed it to be confirmed

N'vara looked sideways, Roarr was not around to protect her. The dark skinned warrior came even closer, took her chin in one hand, and lifted her face roughly to get a better look at her.

-"Fine features," he said, and stroked her hair, tied in dreadlocks. He took off his mask and sniffed them, "You don't even stink anymore."

N'vara took a good look at him, instead of his lower left jaw he had a stump of burned skin, his eyes were bright yellow and his flat face was lined with four diagonal scars. It reminded N’vara of something terrible…

The memory of yellow eyes and claws, blood and pain came to her mind, she pushed the giant's claw away from her face and hit him unsuccessfully with her fists.

-"Noooo!  _ Nadanu _ !" a name formed in her mouth, deep from her consciousness.

N'vara scratched the face of her attacker, and he gave her a tremendous slap that threw her to the ground.

\- " _ K’sitra _ ,  _ Aham’tustah! _ " he exclaimed, pleased.

He approached once more, this time ripping off her robe, exposing her breasts. The giant held her wrists with one hand while with the other he reached his crotch. She squirmed to escape but it was useless.

At that moment, the attacker fell to the side, thanks to a strong punch from Roarr, who had just come out onto the plaza.

-"She belongs to me," Roarr warned him, pointing to N’vara.

-"Do you want to fight for her? I don't see your brand on her" the other replied with a growl and prepared for combat.

-" _Murk'ha_ _Har'Sati_ ," Roarr exclaimed, "Only thinking about mating, would you do it with an animal?"

This infuriated the warrior who, like many others in his clan, didn't see the  _ Nara _ as animals, at least not in matters of pleasure.

It wasn't uncommon for younglings to  _ train _ with young  _ Nara  _ before mating with females of their own species, as females were stronger and they could be injured without mastering the technique first. But this one, clearly only wanted to do it to feel himself dominant.

Roarr pushed the larger male on his shoulder, this was the proper way to start a fight, the other roared, stretching his arms out and flared his jaws, agreeing the challenge. This attracted bystanders’ attention, who stopped doing what they were doing and formed a circle around them. The hunters always enjoyed a good fight. They circled each other for a moment, then the unknown male attacked.

He thrusted himself and tried to hit Roarr's belly with his elbow. Roarr caught him, and smashed his skull into his opponent’s face with a sickening crunch, the burned mouthpiece he had fell loose, he had clearly dislodged it.

The larger male was momentarily stunned and Roarr took the opportunity to throw him to the ground. He attempted to trip Roarr by sweeping his leg, but he jumped and landed on the fallen male, straddling and pinning him to the ground with his talons. Finally, a devastating punch to the flat face sent phosphorescent blood splashing across the stone tiles of the plaza.

\- "Leave!" Roarr growled, getting off the larger male and standing to his feet. The other wiped the blood from his jaws and spat on the ground, he glared balefully at both N'vara and Roarr before he ran out of there, bumping shoulders with everyone in his path.

Roarr watched him flee and chuffed before he collect N'vara, who was still on the ground trembling, and repeating just one word:  _ Nadanu _

\- o -

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers,Hello readers, First, I want to thank elven_prophecy for her extensive editing, whitout her, this chapter would be very different and lackluster. Second, I corrected chapter two as the main story take place two months after N'vara's kidnapping, not a whole year, this is because it fit better to the story and what I have in mind.  
> As usual, here is the glossary for the two languages.  
> Yaksa:  
> Kau'tika - Poacher, sport hunter  
> Ka'Dgha - Burden beast, cattle?  
> Z'van - Dog, Hound.  
> M'Rkata - Monkey, ape-like (insult)  
> K'sitra - Female warrior, m. K'setra  
> Aham'tustah - I am pleased (expression)  
> Murk'ha - Useless  
> Har'Sati - Sexually excited, horny?
> 
> Ancient Human language:  
> Belu - Great Eagle, God of Sky  
> Nadanu - Cave Lion, also Leo constellation.
> 
> Next chapter soon, don't forget to comment! Meanwhile there are other stories you can read. Predator: The Ritual is near it's end, just two more chapters, after that I'll put all my efforts in Prometheus and a re-issue of Predator: The last Hunt, new scenes and dialog.


	5. PRIMAL HUNT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, this chapter is over and special thanks to elven_prophecy for editing the action scenes, it turned out much better than I imagined.  
> Actually this chapter feels like a standalone short story during the last Ice age, about 30,000 years ago. Enjoy it.

Bal'RajKitran looked behind him at the frightened female  _ gHomon _ , sitting on one of the shuttle seats. He had carried her back to his ship because she was terrified and didn’t move when he shaked slightly, trembling with her gaze fixed on nothing and repeating the word he had heard before:  _ Nadanu _ .

He concluded that this was the reason why the woman had  _ V’sm’rti _ . She’d been unconscious when he'd found her, her frailness but a mask. There was strength and bravery in her, unaware of what she had achieved. He had witnessed her succeed where others had failed. While his paws settled on the controls of the craft, his mind wandered to that last hunt on  _ Hmon _ , that green-blue planet and to the events that had led the old warrior to adopt what many  _ Yaksa _ considered an inferior race.

\- o -

**Two** **_Nak'Stras_ ** **prior.**

The  _ b’jakosa _ detached from the  _ Man’Daca _ in high orbit with a dull thump and headed towards the planet, turbulence shook the one craft violently as it came into contact with the upper atmosphere. Sensors on the hull warned its occupant of the rise in temperature, but Bal didn’t flinch. Expert talons moved deftly over the control panel, on the exterior of the ship, three petal-like air flaps deployed and from its inner side thrusters activated, slowing down the pod.

Bal’RajKitran was sure that his arrival had not been discovered, since it was  _ R'tri  _ on this side of the planet. The shuttle landed in a forested mountain valley near a wide river. To the north, ice covered half the continent, but at this latitude the climate was fair. He could track heat more accurately than on warmer  _ Akhe’tabh _ .

The vegetation of this region was mainly composed of giant evergreen. Below the canopy, protected from the wind and snow, was a lush shrub layer consisting of ferns and berry bushes. Bal kept to the trees minimizing his tracks as much as possible by hopping from branch to branch. The inhabitants of this world, the  _ gHomon  _ were known hunters, and scattered throughout the region.

Bal switched on the HUD, the thermal sensors on his mask scanned the area and located a heat source north of his position, a yellow-white spot in the blue-purple background surrounded by another four red and orange signals. 

The integrated targeting system marked it with a red triangle and displayed heading and distance info on the HUD. He headed there using the trees and assessed the situation.

Four  _ gHomon  _ were chatting around a campfire, the smallest specimen talked waving his hands and pointing to the sky. The rest listened quietly as they sharpened their spears. Bal recorded and translated their language, their mannerisms, their voices. It was practical to have as many samples of them as possible, potential prey was more apt to be attracted or distracted by the sounds of their own.

-"What do you think was that light that fell from the sky, Ketur?" the little  _ gHomon  _ asked in his tongue, addressing the one who seemed to be their leader.

It was a remarkable specimen, his skin covered in tattoos, all of them were except the one speaking. Bal recalled the ritual markings of their own people, where the blooded warriors, those who had completed their first hunt and were allowed to hunt, marked themselves with the blood of their prey.

-"You ask too many questions,  _ Little one, _ " Ketur responded to his young apprentice.

-"It didn't look like one of  _ Vasri _ 's spears," the young man insisted, “Maybe we should…?"

-”We need to bring food, Balat. Surely  _ Mahmuni _ will explain it to us tomorrow." Ketur ended the conversation, and then turned to another hunter, "Tiva, are you sure you've seen a pack of  _ Gou  _ around here?"

The  _ gHomon _ Bal deduced, was a  _ R'ga _ -a tracker -replied, "There were tracks near the forest,” Tiva stared into the flames and prodded the fire “They are sleeping under the trees now, and by the morning they will find their way to the meadow."

-"Good,” Ketur drawled, “then we follow the same plan,” He glanced at each man

-“Balat, you will distract,” he nodded at the hunter before his eyes moved on to Tiva and Kavu, “You will both attack from the right, I from the left,” they nodded simultaneously and Ketur took a deep breath.

-”Like  _ Nariwa _ , we separate one of them, we will succeed," Ketur explained.

It wasn’t long after they all approved the plan that the hunters arranged themselves for sleep except for one, who kept watch and tended to the fire.  _ They're cautious, good, _ he thought, and rested high on the tree. He would see how they would perform the next morning, he was curious.

As soon as  _ Su’rya _ opened his eye, the four set out towards a place where a pack of  _ Kha'Dgas  _ were. He followed after them, activating his cloaking, and keeping to the trees. 

Bal watched as the gHomon smeared mud from the river all over their bodies, disguising their scent, the leader then dropped blades of grass and checked the direction of the wind.

He clicked with satisfaction, they were canny for such a primitive race, they knew very well what they were doing. Although the mud reduced much of their infrared mark, it didn’t make them completely invisible to Bal, he can still see their heartbeats, four signatures pulsing like waves caused by a stone in a pond. The smallest of them put a  _ Kha’Dga _ pelt on and dropped on all fours. He approached the herd cautiously, mimicking the prey’s calls.

The beasts turned towards them though it was one of their calf's braying, a large male called in response, inciting it to come back to the safety of the herd. Balat continued mooing but he stayed where he was.

The bull then broke from the group and walked towards him, Bal saw that the trick worked, the other three hunters stalked in a circle. Balat backed away, pulling the bull further away from the safety of the herd, straight into the trap. Kavu, Ketur, and Tiva followed the plan, Bal saw their tracks as the grassland flattened in their wake.

Ketur made a bird's call, the signal to strike. The three rose from the tall grass and attacked at the same time with their bone-tipped spears. Two of the projectiles pierced the  _ Kha'Dga _ 's side while the third, thrown by Kavu, hit the hump.

The animal shrieked and snorted in rage, shaking its great horned head, spinning in place, dangerous hooves pounded the ground. Ketur and the others prepared their second set of spears.

-”Balat! Now!” He yelled.

The  _ Gao  _ huffed, a mixture of mucus and blood spurting from his nostrils. He looked up at the calf, feeling that he was in immediate danger but at that moment, Balat pushed aside the hide and took his spear. The bull prepared to face the new threat, scratched the floor with one of its front legs and snorted furiously as it charged at the boy.

-”Balat! Do it! Do it now!” Ketur insisted.

Balat threw his weapon, it ricocheted off the hard head of the animal, which stopped momentarily. It shook its massive head, stunned, and bellowed as it foamed at the mouth. Balat froze, he had failed in his first attempt and there wasn’t any time to get his second spear. He dropped to the ground and curled up, trying to protect himself from the animal's heavy hooves.

Ketur came running to help him, putting himself between the  _ Kha’Dga  _ and the boy. After unsuccessfully trying to ram Ketur, the horned beast made an unexpected turn, kicking at him with its hind legs.

The experienced  _ gHomon  _ landed and his back and rolled aside without hesitation. It was a wise move, since the  _ Kha’Dga  _ horned at him and slammed its head into the ground, barely missing where Ketur was a heartbeat before. The male rose to its hind legs and bellowed, intending to crush the hunter.

-”Ketur! Watch out!” Kavu and Tiva shouted at unison.

Ketur rose to his knees, leaning his spear against the ground, the animal dropped with all its weight. The weapon pierced the auroch's chest and plunged about a quarter of its length. Bal momentarily changed his vision to X-ray and could see the stone point cleanly pierce the male's  _ R'daya _ .

The massive bull bellowed, its lungs filling with  _ Thwei _ . Its tongue lolled out of its mouth, dripping drool and blood, gasping for breath until it finally died. Kavu moved closer as Tiva helped Ketur up.

He walked over to the younger one, who was getting up and brushing dirt and grass off his clothes and matted hair. Before Ketur said anything, Balat apologized:

-"I’m Sorry, Ketur," he said, looking down, shame-faced.

Ketur noticed the yellow thread running down his apprentice's right leg, Balat had urinated out of fear.

-"You have a lot to learn,” the older male clapped him on the back, “Master your fears, Balat, there is work to be done," Ketur told him in a fatherly tone as he, Kevu and Tiva drew their stone knives. “The head will be my trophy.”

From up the tree where he was perched, Bal was actually impressed, that  _ gHomon _ had faced the horned  _ Kha’Dga _ with only a primitive stone-tipped wooden pole and had survived. He would make a good trophy, he wasn't really sure about the other two but given their similar build, he was confident that the challenge would be interesting.

Bal deduced that the young man named Balat was still an unblood, not an accomplished hunter. There was no challenge there. Apparently this had been the youth’s manhood trial and he hadn’t succeeded. Bal's people were not so forgiving of defeat, he better would have met the black warrior than living in shame of having failed.

Bal waited while the  _ gHomon  _ finished butchering and skinning the animal.

-"Tiva, go looking for wood," ordered Ketur and then he addressed the young man, "Balat, return to the camp and tell them about the  _ gao _ , we will need help to hunt the rest of them and carry the meat back."

-"Yes, Ketur," the young man said, grabbing his things and taking off. The  _ R’ga  _ headed into the forest while Ketur and Kavu armed the dryer with bamboo poles and cut the meat into fillets.

Bal followed the now lone hunter staying in the trees and watched as Tiva collected loose, dry branches and bark from a fallen hollowed out tree he had found. He froze in the process of bending and straightened suddenly, turning about to scan the treetops, as if he knew he was being watched.

Tiva’s hearing was very good, and he heard the  _ unfamiliar _ movement of leaves and the slight rustle of a branch, he instantly became alert. The  _ Vakra _ roamed the forest and liked to jump on their unsuspecting prey from the trees. He scanned his surroundings and saw nothing, just the thick green of the tops. His stone knife was in his hand, he wouldn’t die without a fight.

Bal mimicked the bird whistle that Ketur had used as a signal. Tiva turned to the source of the sound and advanced cautiously, whistling in response.

-"Ketur?" He asked in a whisper and heard a strange clicking in answer, similar to that produced by the red-headed, little green bird that hit the wood with its beak fast and hard when looking for grubs.

"It’s just a bird _ , _ " he said and exhaled a breath in relief. At that moment he heard the dull sound of something heavy hitting the ground.

He whirled around, his eyes widening at the magical display happening not far from him. A strange blue fire sizzled in the air and out of nowhere, a  _ tall man _ appeared -or so he thought - his face covered by an odd shiny mask. For a heartbeat he thought that  _ Vasri _ himself was standing before him, before realizing that  _ Isya _ 's imposing son did not have greenish-yellow skin like  _ Makari _ 's.

Bal growled slightly and drew two blades from his arm. Tiva clenched his flint knife and braced himself for the fight. He only had time to scream before the blades dug into his chest and everything turned to darkness.

\- o -

The scream reverberated through the forest, alerting Kavu and Ketur, who came running.

-”Over there!” Ketur said, after he caught sight of Tiva's stone knife on the spongy forest floor. He walked over and picked it up, it was stained with blood.

-"Tiva!" Kavu called, "Tiva!"

-"There is something there," Ketur whispered, and took out his spear. Behind him Kavu did the same.

Perched on a branch, Bal watched the  _ gHomon _ looking for his dead friend, now hanging upside down from a rope. Kavu stepped underneath the body, and as he looked up, a few drops of his partner's blood fell on his face.

-"Aghhh, Ketur, over here," he yelled, wiping his face with the back of his hand and then pointing up.

-”By  _ Isya _ ! Who did this?” he prayed.

Bal clicked in response.

Ketur reacted instinctively and threw his spear. The sharped bone-tipped weapon seemed to stop in midair. Bal roared in a mixture of surprise and anger, he had not expected the  _ gHomon  _ to have seen him, the active camouflage did not make him totally invisible but gave the distortion effect created by the heat. Ketur was indeed a cunning individual.

-"By  _ Isya _ , what sorcery is this?" Kavu exclaimed, his eyes wide as Bal’s imposing shape became visible in a shower of blue sparks.

The spear had pierced the  _ Nara _ 's leg...  _ No, not a Nara.  _ Ketur thought, his hands had claws, and his face was covered by a shiny mask, fiery fangs from an unknown creature attached to. It reminded Ketur of an upright  _ vakra _ . It tore the spear from its leg and dropped the weapon to the ground, then jumped from the tree, landing right between the two hunters.

Bal felt a mixture of emotions, anger the dominant one, the  _ gHomon _ called Ketur was surprisingly fast. There had been no hesitation, he had simply reacted and had taken the  _ Yaksa _ off guard. This  _ gHomon _ would be a worthy trophy. He didn’t remember the last time he had been wounded on a  _ kv’var _ .

He threw himself into the frenzy of the battle. The one called Kavu would give him no problems, and he dealt with him first. A pathetic attempt to impale him was made but Bal dodged the primitive weapon, twirling like a dancer, ever advancing on the hunter. The gHomon unsheathed his stone knife just as he plunged his _ Dah'kte _ into his soft belly, lifting him up so that he was face to face with his killer. 

Kavu spit out blood and it splattered against his mask. The human had enough strength left in him to raise his knife and plunge it into Bal’s unprotected shoulder. The  _ Yaksa _ snarled and retracted his blades, Kavu’s lax body dropped unceremoniously to the ground. He used his foot to turn the corpse onto his stomach. Sharp claws dug into the base of the spine and pulled the bones out in one swift motion, the  _ Kapa’ _ , still attached to the end of it, danced as Bal waved his prize.

He hung the trophy on his back and kicked the body aside and turned to face Ketur; finally, the one-on-one fight would begin. Bal tore the stone dagger from his shoulder and threw it to the ground.

Just one more thing, the  _ gHomon _ deserved it. Bal disconnected the power lines from his mask, grayish steam hissed from the tubes. He took the mask by the bottom, pulling it away from his face and moved his jaws, loosening them up.

Ketur clenched his weapon tightly, in his life he had seen many terrifying beasts, but the one in front of him really took first place. It had yellow eyes sunken deep into black sockets, four fanged jaws encircling a drooling mouth full of sharp little teeth.

-” _ K-Kee-tRrrrrr, _ ” Bal mimicked Tiva’s voice, taunting him.

-”You know my name  _ VakraNara _ …” the old hunter nodded, “Good, tell  _ Antaka _ who had sent you," Ketur added as he grabbed his spear, phosphorescent green blood gleamed at its tip. In his other hand, he held a stone knife with an elk antler handle.

Bal growled, flaring his mandibles and spreading his arms in defiance. He drew a short staff from his back, pressed a button and sharp points emerged from both ends of the staff, turning it into a double-tipped spear.

-” _ H-Hhee-ad… my Ttr-trophy, _ ” Bal said with Ketur’s voice, twirling his spear expertly.

Ketur’s eyes widened briefly, but he attacked first, instincts driving him forward.  _ The VakraNara moves fast but he's injured _ , he thought. If he managed to further incapacitate him, he could subdue him.

Bal leapt towards the  _ gHomon _ , falling behind him, the pain in his thigh a minor inconvenience. He twirled his combistick and stabbed forward. Ketur evaded and rolled away expertly. Beady eyes narrowed as the inferior creature mocked him.

-"Too fast for you,  _ Vakra _ ?" Ketur taunted. 

-“ _ M’rkata, _ ” Bal cursed, he had fast reflexes indeed.

The human straightened and launched his spear at him, Bal snatched it in mid-air and to the astonishment of the primitive being, broke the implement in half by clenching his paw into a fist.

-" _ Y-you have a lot tooo leaRrrn, _ " Bal used Ketur's own words

-"So do you, Beast," the  _ M’rkata  _ replied, holding his knife, "Now, this is personal."

The  _ Yaksa  _ tilted his head, his dreads sliding off a shoulder as he watched the  _ gHomon _ taking a fighting stance. Close combat was it? Bal pressed a button and his combistick retracted within itself, he hung it on his place and activated his  _ Dah'kte _ instead. This indeed made it more personal. A growl rumbled from his chest as he circled the  _ gHomon _ with his arms stretched out.

Ketur sliced at his midsection, and hopped backwards nimbly as the dual blades slashed back, The hunter was visibly smaller than the beast-man and moved a lot faster, cutting into the thick green skin. He wasn’t doing near enough damage, and dodging the monster was starting to take its toll. Sweat rolled down his back, his heart pounded like a war drum in his ears.

He took a chance and dove for the midsection, using his shoulder to knock the air out of the  _ VakraNara _ . This close, he buried his elk knife to the hilt into the side of the monster. He roared like a great cat, the sound sending birds scattering to the realm of Belu. For half a heartbeat, Ketur thought he had won and then pain exploded in his back, the likes of which he had never experienced before.

He dropped to the ground like a rock in water, he heard something crack inside as he was kicked hard. He flew away until his back hit a tree, blood exploded from his mouth.

Ketur made an attempt at standing up, but failed. He placed a hand against his side, he felt as though he was on fire.

-"You can…” He coughed up blood, “keep that," he took a shuddering breath. He had two options left to him now, he could sit there and wait to die or he could die fighting.  _ l’m not going to die like an animal _ , Ketur thought,  _ the gods will laugh at me if I do _ .

He screamed as he surged to his feet, blood leaking liberally from his mouth.

-”Trophy,” Bal mimicked Ketur’s voice and pulled out the knife from his side. Phosphorescent liquid spurted from the wound as he advanced towards the now standing hunter clutching his abdomen. He tossed the blade back to Ketur who caught it in midair.

The hunter understood. The Tiger-man won't fight with an unarmed opponent. It had the upper hand, the strength and the chance to kill but for some reason it wouldn't. Ketur likened it to a hunter who wouldn't kill a calf or a fawn. He gripped the knife tightly, if he would have to die, it would be fighting.

\- o -

Bal finished with the skins and put all his attention on Ketur’s  _ Kapa _ ’. The  _ gHomon _ had fought with strength and honor. Paya's practice had been served, the wound received was easily treated by his  _ Chi'kitsa _ or field medikit.

He used an extractor to clean up all flesh and matter from the skull and coated it with a layer of polycarbonate compound. After his work was done he placed the body on the ground, along with his knife and the broken spear. He had considered taking the stone blade as a trophy but he decided to let the warrior be buried or cremated with it when his people found him. The other two hunters were hung upside down nearby.

He would wait for when the young one came back with the rest of their hunters and follow them, seeing if there were more of them worthy as warriors.

Bal didn't have to wait long. His mask picked up the heat signal of five more gHomon heading for the camp.

\- o -

A whisper behind him brought Bal'RajKitran back from his memories. N'vara mumbled a few unintelligible words, and then jumped excited from the seat.

-"I remember… I remember what had happened!" She shouted " _ I remember who I am! _ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note on the glossary. I based these dialect (both Yaksa and Nara) in ancient languages. most prominent being Sanskrit, as is the closest to Proto-Indo European which is the oldest spoken speech known. Others are the canon Yautja language created by Steve Perry in the AvP novels and finally in some Mesoamerican dialect.  
> I want to remark two words:  
> First is the name I give to the species: Yaksa, in sanskrit is the name of a nature spirit, keeper of the forest and sometimes, they kill humans. It is pronounced yaksha, and in chinese: Iao-tcha, wich is similar to Steve Perry's Yautja. In The Last Hunt, a OWLF agent misspronounces the word and turned it into Yautja, making it the refered word for how the humans call the Predators, much like Gojira became Godzilla in the 1998 movie.  
> The second is gHomon, which is a PIE reconstructed word for Human (from gHom: Humus, dirt or Earth. gHomon, made of dirt), and in my interpretation is pronounced Who-oman, similar to the ooman used by Perry.  
> All this in an atempt to reconcile Canon with real life facts, making my Predator expanded universe more realistic.
> 
> Yaksa words:  
> Akhe’tabh - Hunting ground/Hunting planet  
> Bal'RajKitran - Powerful king of clear mind.  
> b’jakosa - Drop pod.  
> Chi'kitsa - Medikit  
> Dah’kte - Wrist-blades.  
> gHomon - (Pr: Who-o-mon), Inhabitant of Earth. Earthling, Human.  
> Hmon - (Pr. Hmm-mon) Planet Earth.  
> Kapa’ - Skull, Head.  
> Kha’dga - Wild Beast, cattle.  
> Man’Daca - Yaksa scout ship.  
> M’rkata - Monkey-like (Insult).  
> Nak’Stra - Lunar cycle, Month.  
> R’daya - Heart  
> R’ga - Tracker  
> R’tri - Night  
> Su’rya - Sun  
> Thwei - Blood.  
> V’sm’rti - Memory loss, amnesia.  
> Yaksa - (Pr. Iao-tcha) Predators. How they call themselves.
> 
> Nara words:  
> Antaka - Death, Lord of the Underworld  
> Balat - Single-minded (Name, Pr. Ba-halat) He’s Ketur’s apprentice.  
> Belu - Eagle, Lord of the skies.  
> Gou - Auroch (Bos primigenius)  
> Makari - Crocodile (Crocodylus sp.)  
> Munayah - Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus), Big Dipper constellation.  
> Nadanu - Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea), Leo constellation.  
> Nara - Humanity, how they call themselves.  
> Nariwa - Wolf (Canis lupus), Canis Majoris constellation.  
> Vakra - Tiger, Sabretooth, Leopard or any big cat  
> VakraNara - Tiger-man, Beast-man.  
> Ketur - Lead-Hunter (Name, Pr. Kee-Tr). He’s Netr’s brother.  
> Kavu - Stalker (Name. Pr. Ka-voo), another hunter.  
> Tiva - Tracker (Name. Pr. Ti-waa), He 's the hunting party's tracker.


	6. NADANU, PART ONE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to elven_prophecy for her extensive reviews and expanding the action scenes.

Bal'RajKitran listened to excitement in the female's voice, waiting for an explanation.

-"When I looked into  _ those _ eyes," she licked her odd mouth nervously, "I remembered." Her eyes flickered to his, "T-there is a beast back h-home," she faltered on the word, "T-those eyes and the scars on its face…" She took a deep breath and finally said: " _ Nadanu _ , the Great celestial lion."

He knew exactly what kind of creature she was speaking of, but he remained silent as the girl gave him a detailed recollection of what happened that  _ Ad’nam _ .

\- o -

**Two** **_Nak'Stras_ ** **earlier.**

“Damn,” she cursed as she yawned, covering her mouth with one hand.

It had been her turn to watch the fire but the warmth had caused her to fall asleep at her post, the flames had gone out, and all that remained was a few red-hot coals among the stones.

She quickly scrambled to prepare more tinder and wood, tossed dry branches piled nearby and added some into the fire. She blew carefully on the coals and white smoke plumed from the pile. The girl continued doing it until a fire erupted from the fire-pit.

The yellow flames danced, casting odd shadows on the cave's walls. She raised a hand and moved her fingers, smiling as the giant shadow mirrored her movements. At that moment, a guttural sound was heard.

-"Yuva, is that you?" She stilled, her eyes scanned her surroundings quickly.

Her gaze found the young man in the darkness, sleeping soundly not far from her, she heard the soft snores emanating from him. A soft grunt echoed from the depths of the cave once more.

-“Who is there?” She raised her voice. They were still the  _ Va’Naras  _ in this territory, most of the time the two clans got along well, but there were rare occasions when violent clashes occurred. “We meant no harm, we were just looking for shelter from the storm.”

The young female took one of the branches from the hearth and armed with the impromptu torch, she walked into the darkness, assuming the noise came from there.

-"Hello?  _ Harih oh? _ " She used the formal greeting.

The cavern narrowed as she went deeper, water dripped from the stalactites on the ceiling. The floor of the cave was slippery, and her feet were soaked. She frowned and glanced down. It wasn’t water; she was standing in a small pool of blood.

Her eyes alighted on a pale, pink cracked bone with some rotten meat attached to it, flies and maggots crawled all over it. More fragments of different sizes were scattered about... The growl echoed once more.

The blood chilled in her veins as she stilled, her heart pounded hard and her eyes widened. Her feet inched backwards, one careful step at the time... They had entered the lair of a predator, a large one judging by the scattered remains.

She waved the torch, looking for a sign of the beast.  _ It's not here _ , she thought,  _ unless… _

The horrifying realization struck into her mind like lightning, stopping all other thoughts, she turned around and hurried up back to the cave's entrance. 

The torchlight danced around her as she approached the opening, there was an eerie silence out there, the usual chirping of nocturnal bugs was absent. Reflecting eyes flashed briefly in the darkness like stars just for a blink, but it was enough to put the girl on high alert who in turn warned her companion.

\- "Yuva," she whispered as she shook the young man urgently. "Yuva, wake up now, we’re in danger!"

-" _ Rarama _ ?" He groaned and then yawned, "W-what happened?" His voice was muffled but he continued anyway, "Has the storm passed?"

-"Something is out there...” Rarama pointed at the darkness outside.

Yuva raised his head and looked towards the cave’s entrance. The growl rumbled once more, the young man sat up.

Just outside the illuminated area by the firepit's pale light, a mass of pale orange fur, sleek muscular body with curved, black claws appeared. It hesitated just for a moment before stepping inside the cave and Rarama had a full view of the creature.

The nightmare had a short snout with amber eyes furrowed by deep scars across its face, the large teeth were capable of breaking a man's bones effortlessly. She wondered why it wasn't afraid of the fire until she noticed the vakra had a broken spear stuck on its side. This wasn't the beast's first encounter between it and the  _ Naras _ . The great cat was bold and had survived many battles.

-" _ Nadanu _ !" she exclaimed, eyes widened in both fear and wonder. It was a cave lion. An unusually large specimen even for its kind that for a moment, Rarama thought the celestial Lion itself had descended from the abodes of  _ Isya _ and her children.

Yuva's chest was pounding, his heart trying to get out of his chest, laying in a semi-crouched posture, he stretched his arm, reaching for his weapon just a few steps away. The great cat let out a roar that echoed through the cavern as a warning.

The man stopped, If only he could get up... but Nadanu kept his eyes on him, so he tried again until he managed to grab the spear by its tip with two fingers and very cautiously pulled it. He turned to Rarama who was trembling, and hissed urgently at her.

-"Rarama, grab your spear. Quickly!"

The young woman complied, very slowly she moved sideways toward the place where her equipment was piled up.  _ Nadanu _ snarled again and charged, claws scraping against the stone. Yuva shoved her roughly out of range of those massive paws and took her intended blow. He screamed in pain as the sharp claws sliced at his side, throwing him against a rock.

-"Yuva!" she shrieked, fearing the worst.

The young man was badly hurt, bleeding profusely from three diagonal wounds on his abdomen. The lion approached deliberately, the scent of blood seemed to excite it, making it ignore Rarama completely.

She managed to grab her spear, "Hey, over here!" she yelled at it in an attempt to draw its attention away from her friend, but the huge creature was too focused. 

There was only one thing to do, wielding her weapon tightly and attacking, she drove the sharp point into the animal's back. It roared painfully and whirled around, clawing at the girl's leg. Rarama fell onto the cave’s wet floor face down.

She lifted her head in time to see  _ Nadanu _ hesitate between Yuva and her. After what felt like an eternity, but was in fact a couple of heartbeats, the lion finally decided to come for her first. It approached cautiously, its jaws opened, ready to take her life, she could already feel them in her throat. The hot and putrid breath of the animal hit her in the face, she’d let it come as close as possible if she hoped for a chance to kill it. She reacted with speed, powered by both fear and adrenaline, burying her flint knife into the lion's eye. Warm blood splattered across her face. The big cat’s snarl was high pitched and laced with agony, it clawed aimlessly before fleeing to the bottom of the cave, seriously wounded.

-"Yuva!" she screamed, getting up despite the pain in her ankle and walking to where the young man had fallen. Her eyes kept alternating between him and the darkness of the cave, in case  _ Nadanu  _ attacked again.

Yuva moaned and pressed his hand to the wound in his chest, trying to stop the bleeding. She helped him up, placed her free arm on his shoulder, and they walked back to camp laboriously. At mid-morning, when they were a considerable distance from the cave, they stopped at a stream where Rarama tended to his wounds, using knowledge of local plants, applied a sage compress to stop the bleeding, and horsetail as an antiseptic.

_ Rohit _ had already completed his ascent in the sky and half his descent, bathing the mountains’ snowy caps with orange light when they  _ finally _ reached the circle of mammoth-skin huts.

-” _ Mahmuni _ !  _ Mahmuni _ !” Rarama called for the medicine woman. “Yuva is hurt!”

Everyone was gathered at the center of the hut circle, at first, she thought they had come out to meet them, alerted by her screams, but she immediately realized that they were looking at the center of the circle. It wasn’t until they got closer she was horrified by the sight.

There were three bodies. A hunting party that had gone out two days ago, following the trail of a herd of  _ Gao _ in the valley, near the place where she and Yuva had seen the bright light during the storm.

They were unrecognizable, two of them had been completely skinned and the third was beheaded and boned like a fish. She recognized him only by his tattoos, it was Ketur, the brother of Clan leader Netr. She quickly deduced the other two were Tiva and Kavu, they had left with him.

-”We found them by the river,” a pale, young hunter called Balat explained, “Hanging from a tree,” he swallowed and then cleared his throat as he continued in a rush, “we didn’t find their weapons, except Ketur's” he handed a broken spear and a flint knife to Netr, who looked them over a long time.

-"Ketur's knife," Netr said, flipping the weapon on his hand, his calloused thumb rubbing over the familiar carvings on the antler hilt delicately. A strange glowing green liquid stained the blade, while touching it, the glow passed to his hand. “What 's this?”

-”I don’t know…” Balat said, “It's not blood.”

-”We were on the ridge collecting flint when Balat came to us,” Manu, the stone worker intervened, turning at Ketur’s apprentice, “He told us Ketur wanted help to hunt the rest of the  _ Gao _ .” Balat nodded. “He guided us to their camp and we found the site deserted.”

-”Everything was in order, there were no signs of a fight, just a few tracks heading into the forest," Manu continued, swallowing, fear obscured his face. “We searched in the woods until we found them.”

-”This…” the old clan leader crouched beside the bodies to take a better look at it, “ _ Nadanu _ didn’t do this,” he swallowed as his eyes lingered on his brother’s corpse “Neither  _ Munayah  _ or even a vicious  _ Vakra _ . This has never been done before.” In all his life as an experienced hunter, Netr knew of nothing that skinned men.

-”W-What did this to them?” Rarama asked, horrified, her fingers tightening on Yuva’s wrist that she held over her shoulder.  _ Mahmuni _ stepped into the circle, looked at the bodies, and muttered something unintelligible. It was then that Netr noticed Yuva, who was moaning and covered in dried blood from a tearing wound at his side.

-" _ Little one _ … W-what happened?” Netr asked worried, but the girl was still looking at the bodies, “What happened?!” the clan leader insisted, Rarama snapped out of her momentary trance.

-”I-it was  _ Nadanu _ ,” she stuttered, emphasizing on the name.

-"The great Celestial Lion? Are  _ you _ sure?” Netr noticed that she was referring to a mythical beast instead of a common predator.

Two of the men gathered there helped her by holding the young man. Rarama refused the help as she could still walk.

-”I-it was b-bigger than the common vakra.” Rarama stretching out her arms to show its dimensions. “Deep furrows on its face, a spear tip stuck in its side.”

-"It ambushed us in the cave we used as shelter…” she paused, omitting the brief, intimate moment between the two. “Near the Standing Stone valley, passing the hill," Rarama continued, her eyes were wet with tears. “I-it attacked me but Yuva took the hit… I managed to hurt one of its eyes. That’s how we escaped.”

As a hunter he understood the natural world, prey and, of course, predators, if a large predator has taken the area as its hunting ground, they have to kill it before it takes a taste for the camp. In matters of the gods he always followed Mahmuni's advice, but the way his brother and hunters were slaughtered…  _ Something _ wasn’t right.

-"My people," Netr raised his arms to the sky, imploring silence, "This is what we will do," he spoke calmly, grief laced his words. When all eyes were on him, he closed his eyes for a moment, tears were forming, "Tonight, we must pray and rest, ask for guidance.” he paused for a moment, “we will take turns watching during the night and when  _ Rohit _ awakes, the other warriors and I will look for the signs…" Finally, he turned towards the Shamaness and the young couple, " _ Mahmuni, _ please tend their wounds.”

She nodded and she gestured to the men which complied, one lifted Yuva by the shoulders and the other grabbed his feet.

Moments later they were inside the medicine woman's hut. Rarama sat, leg crossed over a deer skin while Yuva was laying on a hay-filled mammoth skin bed. The medicine woman treated his wounds with a paste made of pine sap, sage and mold all mixed together in a basalt bowl.

-"Mmmghhhahh," Yuva grunted as  _ Mahmuni _ applied the paste on one of the wounds made by the lion.

-"Easy..." she soothed Yuva, "This will stop the bleeding, and maybe the black sickness," she explained calmly, her voice turned pensive, "Rarama made an excellent job with those bandages," she turned towards Rarama, "You should be a Mahmuni."

-"I… I can't,” her eyes lowered, “I'm not wise enough to interpret the signs of  _ Isya _ or her children." Rarama kept her head down, "What do you think happened to the hunters? Do you think the  _ Va'Naras _ killed them?"

The medicine woman said nothing as she finished treating Yuva's wounds, who was now sleeping peacefully due to the belladonna infusion that she gave him earlier. The old woman got up and went outside the tent, she craned her neck up and looked over the starry sky. Isya had not risen yet, and they glittered like fire bugs on the water.

-"The  _ Va’Nara _ are peaceful people and usually they stay away from us, it wasn't them..." she finally said.

-"But it wasn't a beast, Mahmuni," she insisted, "The animals do not take  _ just _ the skin of their prey leaving everything else."

-"Rarama, Balat said something interesting,” Mahmuni began, “He said that the night before they saw a bright light fall from the sky," she paused and then continued, "He thought it was a sign from  _ Isya _ ."

The girl's eyes widened in emotion, "We saw it too! It fell near the great mountain,” her voice increased in speed with her excitement, "very close to where Ketur and the others were hunting..." she trailed off before she continued slowly, "It was before we were attacked by  _ Nadanu _ ..."

-"Mmmmmm," The shamaness stared at her in silence, immersed in her memories. She rummaged through her medicine bag and pulled out an amulet of bones linked by the braided nerve of some animal. She undid the knot and spread the little bones over a wooden bowl. Her wrinkled wide mouth grimaced slightly before she took a deep breath, "Tell me about the light."

Rarama swallowed and nodded, "It was green light, and bright…” She frowned as she remembered, “A white fire tailed it, it like  _ Vasri _ 's spears but not..." she hesitated and then added "Hm, now that I think about it,” she looked at the other woman, “it didn't make any noise when it hit the ground, Soona."

_ Soona _ smiled warmly, that is what she was called before becoming  _ Mahmuni _ , one of  _ Isya _ 's names.

_ Rarama Is a very perceptive girl with a shrewd mind _ , Mahmuni thought,  _ Her memory could easily compete with mine _ .

Since she was a child, the medicine woman had a prodigious recall, she could remember details just by looking once, which led her to successfully interpret the signs written in heaven and the efficient use of herbs and mushrooms. Soona hoped Rarama would become her successor, but she was simply not interested.

The signs were there: the bodies, the strange light, and the lightning without thunder. She remembered a story told to her by her grandsire...

-" _ Arudra _ ..." A single word came out of her mouth.

-" _ Arudra _ ?" Rarama asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The Celestial Hunter," the Shamaness explained, pointing towards the part of the sky where seven points of light illuminated the night sky. "It is said that every few cycles  _ Arudra _ comes down to  _ Iyeru. _ "

-" _ He _ came down?" Rarama was intrigued, "What could a god want down here?"

-"My grandfather's grandfather,  _ Onoru _ , told him that  _ Arudra _ comes down in the form of  _ Ikal _ looking for pelts so that his wife can make him a new outfit."

-" _ Ikal _ ?" Rarama asked again, curiosity was really killing her. "Is he a spirit too?"

-" _ Cerami _ said that Arudra cannot be seen, like the wind," Soona explained. 

-"Mahmuni?" Rarama asked after pondering about the matter, she pointed to another part of the sky, "Do you think that  _ Nadanu _ jumped down from the sky and  _ Arudra _ came to get it back to where it belongs?"

The Shaman watched the celestial vault silently and after a few moments concluded:

-"Maybe you're right, Rarama," she smiled at her and added, "Did I ever tell you that you would be an excellent apprentice?"

-"All the time,  _ Mahmuni _ . But I just want to be with Yuva," Rarama answered with a smile of her own.

-"You can't blame an old woman for trying..." She sighed, resigned, "Go to sleep, little one. Netr and the others are watching in case  _ Nadanu _ attacks." The old healer went back into her tent. Rarama stared at the starry night for a little longer and then she headed back to the hut she shared with her grandsire. She was tired and the old man was already sleeping, she leaned in a corner, covered herself with a skin and let darkness take her away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers, welcome back. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. Originally this was officially the longest chapter I’d written, but I decided to split in two as there’s a few things I want to add to it.  
> The Nara (human) language is pretty much extensive this time. Some of the words came from Ralamuli, a tribe from the Sierra Madre on Chihuahua, Mexico, where I am from. I expect to increase more of that fantastic mythology into the story in the next chapters. Meanwhile, here’s the glossary and don’t forget to comment.  
> Nara Words.  
> Antaka - Death, Lord of the Underworld.  
> Arudra - The celestial hunter (Orion constellation).  
> Cerami - Old man (Name), Soona’s grandfather.  
> Hari Ho - Hello, formal greeting.  
> Ikal - Spirit, invisible.  
> Iyeru - Mother Nature, Earth (planet).  
> Manu - Stone worker (Name) He’s a smith, he made stone tools.  
> Nadanu - Cave lion (Panthera spelaea). Celestial Lion (Leo constellation)  
> Netr - Leader, Chieftain (Name). He’s the Clan leader.  
> Onoru - One-who-is-father (Name), Soona’s great grandsire.  
> Rarama - Light feet, Swift feet (Name).  
> Rohit - Sun (Pr. Ro-heet).  
> Soona - Waning moon (Name), Mahmuni’s real name.  
> Va’Nara - Neanderthal (Homo sapiens neardenthalensis).  
> Vakra - Any big cat, Tiger.
> 
> Yaksa words.  
> A’dnam - Day, planet cycle.  
> Nak’Stra - Lunar cycle, month.


	7. NADANU, PART TWO

Netr’s eyes glanced towards the treeline again. He had heard something that wasn’t natural, and the foliage moved in spite of no wind.  _ No, _ he told himself,  _ Nadanu likes to ambush his prey crouching in tall grass, not from the treetops _ .

The hairs on the back of his neck rose and he felt eyes watching him intently. His instincts were screaming for him to run. A constant clicking seemed to follow him ominously.

He thought, and turned around. He would check the pasture when he was relieved by Su’re, the woman took a while to appear behind him. “I will go and check the tall grass.” He made eye contact with her before he walked away.

-”Don’t worry, Netr, I got your back,” Su’re said, biting her lip and smiling cheerfully. He smirked back at the long haired, brunette woman. This kind of flirtation between the huntress and the clan leader had been going on for a while, since last winter. Su’re was unmated and Netr had lost his woman two winters ago.

High on a tree, Bal watched the man they called Netr leave. He was the leader of that small camp of  _ gHomon _ . By accessing infrared sensors aboard the  _ Man'Daca _ , Bal knew this was one of the multiple groups living in the valley; he counted at least ten of these settlements, with an average population of fifty individuals each. There would be plenty of prey, but he chose this particular camp because the one called Ketur had proven himself.

A well-toned female took the place of the leader, wearing only a wolf skin loincloth and covering her chest and shoulders with a deer-suede blanket. Bal decided to follow Netr.

\- o -

Rarama woke up hearing a low growl, she sharpened her ears but couldn't hear it anymore. The air felt stifled and thirst plagued her. Her hand reached out blindly for her deer stomach canteen, she drank deeply and went out into the night air. Her hut was in the farthest part of the camp, on the edge of a cliff that fell into the river.

Netr had chosen this area for the summer camp because it was protected on three fronts with access to fresh water. The river and cliffs to the south and east, a dense grove to the west, the only access was to the north by a wide strip of grassland.

She walked through the camp toward the tall grass. Netr was probably near the edge, both his tent and Mahmuni's were the closest to the meadow.

There was no sign of the clan leader when she got there.  _ Maybe he is near the treeline, _ she thought. A low whisper caught her attention and she glanced out towards the field.

The blades of grass swayed slightly although it was not windy, Rarama squinted and thought she saw something there, hiding in the vegetation, a yellow glow. A guttural sound reached her ears, almost like a growl...

"Mghhhhhhh!!" she gasped as someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth with one hand.

-"Did you see something out there?" Netr whispered in her ear.

Rarama nodded and pointed to the grass, where she had seen the glow. Netr grabbed his weapon and advanced slowly, indicating Rarama to remain there with his hand. There was indeed a yellowish glow peeking out between the grass.

Rarama remembered she had taken one of  _ Nadanu _ ’s eyes. The yellow light rose and floated over the grass, others soon followed.

\- " _ Titiba, _ " Netr said, turning his back to the field, "Light bugs.”

Rarama sighed in relief and felt silly, the fact that she almost lost Yuva in the cave was affecting her badly.

It happened suddenly, the Lion leapt from a bush, right into Netr, knocking him on his back. The great paws landed on his torso, claws digging into his chest. The man grunted, he had managed to bring his weapon up, and was using it to keep the slavering jaws of the beast at bay.

Thick globs of saliva hit the Clan leader’s face, the putrid breath of the big cat making him dizzy with both fear and disgust. Sharp nails dug into him, the heavy weight stealing his breath. He spotted Rarama paralyzed before she rallied to his aid. He grunted, trying to shove the animal off while she pelted it with stones.

The noises they were making alerted Su're who came running, she unleashed a warcry as she stabbed her bone-tipped spear into the lion's hide.  _ Nadanu  _ roared and quick as lightning turned to this new threat and lashed out with its massive paws. The huntress screamed and hopped away, bleeding heavily from a fresh wound on her side. Nadanu had shifted enough that Netr was able to roll to his feet, ignoring the injuries on his chest. He pulled out Ketur's carved elk knife and leapt on the beast. He clung to the thick fur, trying desperately to kill the animal.

A great struggle began that Netr would remember for the rest of his short life. The cat shook itself and knocked him to the side, the big head came down and teeth pierced into his shoulder. He shrieked in pain as the maw crushed down and his bones snapped and broke, they cracked right by his ear. He stabbed blindly, howling in pain as Nadanu stepped on his other arm, pinning him before pulling hard. Skin tore and blood exploded and Netr was bounced off the ground. He lost consciousness, the lion's savage snarl was the last thing he heard.

-"Nooooooo!" Su're shrieked, her heart breaking. A gold eye flashed, bloodied teeth bared as the monster turned to the huntress. Her eyes met Rarama’s and she managed to yell, "Run!" before she was attacked.

Rarama snapped out of her trance and ran towards Mahmuni's tent without looking back.

-"Soona... Soona!" the girl shouted frantic, "Soona, Yuva... wake up!"

If Netr and Su're, the best hunters of the clan had succumbed to  _ Nadanu _ 's power, then there was no hope. Her only thought was now to protect the young man she loved and the woman who had taught her so much since she was a child, and maybe escape from the wrath of the monster.

She entered the hut and froze, her hopes shattered when she took in what happened. There was a huge rip on the tent’s wall, the coldness of the wind coming through. The fire pit at the center was trampled, coals and ash scattered on the ground and next to it, Yuva's inert body lying in a pool of blood in an unnatural posture, his face shredded by claws.

-"Noooooo! Yuvaaaa!” And screamed again with all her strength.

Crouching down next to the man she loved, she let the tears fall unheeded, a few drops fell over Yuva’s ravaged face, mixing with the thick red liquid. Her gaze then fixed on the bulge at the other end of the hut.

It was Soona. The old woman hadn't stood a chance. Nadanu had ripped her throat out as she had tried to defend the wounded young man. She still clutched Yuva's spear in her hands.

-“Soonaaaaa!" she cried one more time.

The lion had tracked them to the camp, following the scent of blood. It had attacked and then just left, proof of this were the bloody paw prints that the animal left behind.

Rarama heard the unmistakable growl behind her,  _ Nadanu _ was  _ there _ , muzzle dripping blood, its single eye blazing with fury. Rarama knew then that Su're was dead.

Trembling, she took Yuva's spear. It was now or never, she was going to avenge the death of her loved ones or die in the attempt.  _ The great celestial lion is actually a bloodthirsty monster _ , Rarama thought. It hasn't killed them out of necessity but out of pure revenge... had taken her  _ everything _ .

_ Yuva was dead _ , Soona too... Netr and Su're with all their strength and experience, were killed too. Rarama knew she wasn’t going to live through the night, but for  _ Isya _ she swore that she would take  _ Nadanu _ 's remaining eye before dying.

-"I'll leave you in the dark,” she snarled, her body vibrating with adrenaline, “you won't see  _ Arudra _ when he comes for you!"

The cat roared, and scrambled for her, its paws slapping at the ground, its rear end raising up. She saw the claws in stark relief and jabbed forward. The beast snarled and its jaw snapped shut on her weapon. She gasped as the pole was wrenched from her grip and splintered in one bite.

Rarama did not hesitate and sprinted at full speed through the ripped hole in the tent.

The cave lion charged in hot pursuit, tearing the mammoth skin even more as it jumped out into the night. Rarama knew that if she ran towards the forest or the grassland she would never be able to overcome the predator. She had one option: the cliff at the edge of the camp and the river below.

She screamed as she ran for the ridge. Rarama remembered the water was deep, but it was dark and there were rocks... she tried not to think of missing and jumped, spreading her arms like the wings of a bird.

Teeth clamped on her arm as  _ Nadanu _ caught her in mid air and pulled. She shrieked as she was tossed against the dirt at the edge of the cliff.

She rolled and just barely avoided the claws of the predator, she could hear the rushing water and the snarling. Her knife dug in her hip as she bounced on the rocks…  _ Her knife! _ Her eyes widened briefly, her hand flying to the weapon.

_ Nadanu _ circled, ears flicking back and forth. He sat back and growled savagely. Rarama jumped to her feet, her back to the cliff. The Lion loomed large, the spear in its side making a mockery of her hunters. It advanced slowly, deliberately, one gold feral eye flashing cruelly. There was the promise of a long, torturous death in those jaws.

Rarama gripped her blade tightly, the drumming in her head was deafening, but stood her ground. Her body was vibrating in both fear and the need for revenge. Nadanu had taken  _ everything _ from her. She had one more thing left to give.

Her life.

She had nothing left…  _ Yuva _ …

His image as she had seen him, wounded and ravaged flashed in her mind's eyes, surrounded by blood. Tears rolled unheeded down her cheeks, and she clenched her teeth  _ hard _ as Nadanu reared in front of her, massive paws grabbing around her neck and shoulders. She shrieked and stabbed for all she was worth into the furry belly of the beast.

The massive head came down, sharp teeth pierced her left shoulder. She screamed, her left arm came around the animal and she grabbed a handful of fur. The weight of  _ Nadanu _ was too great for her to hold. It was going to bring her down…

She stabbed again and again as they slowly toppled backwards. She clung to the creature, even as it dug its claws into her back, the maw crushing her. Rarama felt the coldness of  _ Antaka _ 's call, she resisted,  _ Nadanu was coming with her _ .

She fell into the cold water, narrowly missing the rocks, however her head bumped with a submerged log. The blow sucked the air out of her and she swallowed, desperately waving her arms until she managed to emerge.

Rarama watched as  _ Nadanu _ struggled to scale the edge, but eventually the loss of blood weakened the huge animal. The monster emitted a low groan, foam and blood spurted from its mouth and closing its yellow eye finally fell, slamming into a boulder.

_ Nadanu is dead, so is the man I loved _ , she thought.

The current was slowly dragging her down the river. She hadn't any strength left and her body felt heavy, sinking into the dark waters. There, floating on her back, gazing up at the starry sky, she saw the points of light that made up  _ Arudra _ . They seemed to glow for a moment, giving the impression that he was dancing.

_ The celestial hunter is pleased, as is Isya _ , Rarama thought, a faint, sad smile formed on her lips. The great white circle blazed in all its splendor not far from the red dot at  _ Arudra _ ’s shoulders. She sighed, accepting her fate, but at that moment she saw a strange blurr on the shore, the rocks and bushes on its wake. Rarama compared it to the waves produced in a pond by a rock.

_ Ikal? _ She wondered.

No, her sight was not deceiving her, the distortion was moving down the bank towards her. Blue sparks spurted around when the  _ Ikal _ reached the water, and then a big shape materialized out of thin air.

A huge muscular body covered by a net like those used for fishing and a leather loincloth, the  _ Ikal _ ’s head with a shining mask like  _ Isya _ 's face and a fiery mouth made by teeth attached to, its hair was braided with bony rings in long dreadlocks, black as  _ bawi _ the meadow viper, which fell to its shoulders.

-" _ Arudra, _ " Rarama whispered, before her world turned into darkness.

\- o -

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this concludes the second part of Rarama’s backstory. Thanks to elven_prophecy who rewrote the action scenes, especially the Lion attacks and the final fight on the cliff, it would be rude not to give her credit for it.  
> I wish to clarify a strange coincidence that arose during the development of the story. The Arudra's story that Soona tells Rarama was obviously based on previous encounters with Predators, either Bal or someone else of his kind.  
> Arudra, or Ardra is a Sanskrit word to define the Orion constellation, however in the ancient civilization of the Indus Valley, he was known as Paspati, the lord of the beasts, one of the names of Shiva, represented as fierce hunter, which matches the lore of the Predator.  
> But also, it has another meaning: The one who roars/Mighty roarer. Before losing consciousness, Rarama thinks she saw Arudra coming for her and later, after she wasn’t being able to pronounce Bal's name correctly, calls him Roarr, an onomatopoeia for a roaring sound, making Bal, in effect, Arudra, the roarer.  
> Having clarified that, here’s the glossary.
> 
> Nara Words.  
> Antaka - Death, Lord of the Underworld.  
> Arudra - The celestial hunter (Orion constellation).  
> Bawi - Black meadow viper (probably Vipera lotievi)  
> Ikal - Spirit, invisible.  
> Iyeru - Mother Nature, Earth (planet).  
> Nadanu - Cave lion (Panthera spelaea). Celestial Lion (Leo constellation)  
> Netr - Leader, Chieftain (Name). He’s the Clan leader.  
> Rarama - Light feet, Swift feet (Name).  
> Soona - Waning moon (Name), Mahmuni’s real name.  
> Su’re - Pretty (Name), she’s a huntress. Netr to-be-mate.  
> Titiba - Fire-fly.  
> Vakra - Any big cat, Tiger.
> 
> Yaksa words.  
> A’dnam - Day, planet cycle.  
> Man’Daca - Scout ship.  
> Nak’Stra - Lunar cycle, month.


	8. INCIPIT VITA NOVA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back, finally this chapter is done!. Thanks to elven_prophecy for the editing and don't forget to comment.

**The jungle, some** **_ad’nam_ ** **after.**

Rarama ran through the thick jungle, the dense vegetation prevented sunlight from penetrating fully, keeping the air cool, and yet her lungs burned with exertion, each breath of air felt like sharp thorns in her chest. Behind her, a terrifying roar echoed through the thicket as something stirred the fern leaves and palm tops.

She endured the pain and hurried up, her _r’daya_ pounding as if it wanted to get out of her chest. The adrenaline was pushing her muscles to the limit.

Sudden fear assaulted her mind, _I won't make it_ , she had a few more moments before the beast that was chasing her caught up with her. She dismissed the thought when she finally saw the mark that she’d etched in the bark of a tree at the side of the path just a few _nok_ ahead. Rarama smiled, _almost_.

Upon reaching the signal, she jumped and landed onto the ground and shoulder-rolled in time to face what was chasing her. _That was close_ , she sighed. Her muscles had grown over the past few days, she could run faster and jump farther then she had ever been capable of.

The truth was, she wasn’t being chased, this time, she was the predator, luring her prey into a trap.

A large beast appeared, barreling towards her, roaring and growling. Its four jaws flared open as its mane of dread-like appendages flapped in the wind. Rarama stuck the pole of her spear into the ground, stepped on the end, and aimed its pointed tip at the animal. She narrowed her eyes in concentration.

-"It’s time of the truth," she said with conviction, clenching her weapon firmly.

Rarama remembered the beast’s name: _Dawon_ , the same creature she had seen the day she woke up in that strange world, she’d fled from Bal and had hidden in the mud.

It was a young adult, judging by the length of its mane, Bal told her that their skin was hard as rock and its claws were sharp like his own blades. If she wanted to be able to kill it, she’d have had to resort to another strategy.

For that, she had dug a large pit on the spongy jungle soil that morning, and filled it with sharp fire-hardened wooden pikes. She recalled when Yuva and the other hunters made similar traps for big game back in her world.

_Yuva_ … she thought, his death still stabbed in her heart. _No_ , she came back to herself, he walked with _Antaka_ and she had a new life now, in that strange world.

The _dawon_ kept running without slowing down, roaring furiously. When it reached her mark, the ground gave way under its talons and it fell to the bottom. The combination of the animal's enormous weight and the sharp points did the trick, the _dawon_ was caught in the death trap.

-"Yes!" Rarama exclaimed, her plan had worked perfectly. She dropped her spear and peered into the hole.

Her victory was short-lived, she watched horrified as the beast shook itself and with a swipe of its paws, broke the stakes that imprisoned it. The _dawon_ then looked up and growled, fixing its four yellowish eyes on the woman who was watching it from the edge of the pit.

The broken pikes protruded from its body like thorns on a sea urchin, again the creature roared in fury and effortlessly leapt. Its front legs, armed with three terrible claws, grasped the edge and the _dawon_ then used its hind legs to propel itself out of the trap.

Rarama recoiled and tripped, falling onto her buttocks, she crawled back until she reached for her weapon again. The beast growled shaking its huge head sideways, the sound was similar to gurgling followed by a series of clicks. She waited for the right moment.

The monster roared, spurting droplets of hot, frothy saliva at her face. Rarama reacted quickly, thrusting her spear into the cavernous maw, piercing the throat and roof of the mouth until it jarred against the skull bone.

The _dawon_ screeched in pain, gave one blow at Rarama, throwing her against a log. It tried to lash out again, but the animal fell on its side, phosphorescent orange blood bathed the grass and, with a final bubbling sound the beast died.

Rarama grunted as she stood from the ground, putting her hand over the gash on her belly. Fortunately the wound hadn't been deep, the thick bluish mud she used for camouflage protected her. _Nothing the ci'kitsa couldn't heal_ , she said to herself. She approached the body and retrieved her spear, bright orange blood stained her hands.

-"Not bad, huh?" She asked, staring up at the treetops while wiping her hands on the leather loincloth.

Behind her, something heavy hit the ground and Bal materialized in an explosion of blue sparks.

The _Yaksa_ clicked reluctantly. Technically, the use of traps was forbidden, but he had to admit that those little _ghomon_ compensated for their lack of stamina with cleverness, making them equally adept at defeating larger and stronger foes.

Bal approached her and took her hands, then touched her head with his. A condescending gesture but at the same time respectful. The expert hunter took some of the _dawon_ 's gelatinous blood with his fingers and drew his clan's mark on Rarama's forehead with the thick liquid.

-"What you did there was admirable. Only a few face a beast like that and survive." Bal clicked again, “The same way you survived the beast from your world.”

-"I-I survived..." The female stuttered, her wet eyes filled with grief, "Yuva, Soona and the others… didn't. Just because..." She paused again and then she broke in tears, "I should be known...”

-”U-uu R-rr w-worthy. _Jyok_! R-ra-rama," Bal exclaimed, struggling to express himself in the _ghomon_ ’s primitive dialect.

Rarama was suddenly surprised, he had called her by her name, she wasn't _N'vara_ any more. She fell to his knees to the ground, gagging and puked. “Sorry, I felt dizzy…”

Bal had noticed since the day she recovered her memories the young female had _zesa’ku_ , a very rare condition on the _Yaksa_ , and ultimately forbidden. To them, a survivor was the product of its abilities and strength.

Those who don't were either unworthy or had faced an honorable death and now hunted on _Cetanu_ 's realm. The concept of surviving by pure chance or cheating, was unthinkable to them.

It seemed that the young woman still suffered from bouts of waking up screaming, but with training these were less and less common until an _ad’nam_ or two earlier...

A sudden realization came to mind. As a good hunter, he knew everything about his prey, from their habits and capabilities to their language and... their reproductive cycles. He typed a few commands into the computer on his wrist and the vision in his mask changed with a sweep. Not only was the HUD designed to optimize its wearer's natural thermal vision and track the heat of their prey, other viewing modes were built in and one of them was a computer assisted axial tomography.

He aimed the device at the woman and activated the tracking. He hadn’t done that since that time he’d rescued her from the river.

It was disrespectful for the _Yaksa_ to do an unsolicited analysis. An exception made either on a prey or an enemy, and at that time what he was looking for could not have been detected.

Rarama's body transformed into a bluish silhouette, the wound sustained by the _dawon_ stood out as a red diagonal line. Bal continued his analysis, going deeper. The internal organs displayed a range of reddish orange hues, he quickly located her _r'daya_ , still pumping with adrenaline.

He looked down at her lower belly and adjusted, the speakers of his mask translating the sound of her breathing, and behind it, the faint beat of new life.

\- o -

**Somewhere inside the** **_Yaksa_ ** **outpost.**

The tall, dark brown warrior stood inside the poorly lit chamber. His red armor turned the color of dried blood in the amber light. Two _yaksa_ with yellow-green skin and mottled black were standing there, waiting for him. Gho'ra could not see their faces as they were covered by bronze-colored masks with various inscriptions.

They were purists, fanatics whose zeal for tradition could go so far as carry out _purges_ among hunters considered impure. Such conduct could be considered worthy of a _raksasa_ by the rest, so they were kept secret. Among their ranks there were _yaksa_ of all categories, the common denominator being their xenophobia and fanaticism.

-”Why have you summoned us?” the shorter of the two inquired, a male.

-”The _kau’tika_ named Bal'raj'Kitran, honored one," Gho'ra exposed, bowing before them on one knee. ”The one who treats those filthy _ghomon_ as equals. That female is not just his pet, they say he has been teaching it the _yaksa_ way."

\- "Ah,” the other purist, a female exhaled, recognizing who Gho’ra was talking about. “The one who humiliated you at the market," she remarked.

-”I challenged that old fool as the custom dictated,” Gho’ra excused himself.

-”And yet, others say that you tried to force that..." the female purist growled, tilting her head, "How did you call it? filthy _ghomon_?"

Gho'ra he clicked in protest, but the male's look of disgust made him hold back. It was not wise to challenge them, their mannerisms and arrogance betrayed them as members of a breed of experienced warriors.

-“Bal is a respected hunter and warrior, such accusation...” the male trailed off.

-”The _kau’tika_ purchased a set of armor for the _pet,_ ” Gho’ra interrupted him before he could finish the sentence, emphasizing his contempt.

-”Very well,” the female agreed, “We'll see what that _kau'tika_ is up to."

The male headed for the exit and soon disappeared into the shadows.

Gho'ra narrowed his eyes and clicked maliciously, his plan would bear fruit and he would get revenge for his humiliation, the sound of extending metal dragged him out of his celebration. The purist female drew a huge blade from her bracelet and with a swift blow, beheaded him. The body stood for a moment before falling limp next to the severed head, the yellow eyes still wide in astonishment.

-"That _kau'tika_ may like beasts," she said deliberately, "but only a coward would live with the disgrace of having been humiliated in a fight." She spat down at Gho’ra’s head, then cleaned her weapon with the edge of her cloak and left without looking back.

\- o -

Bal widened his amber eyes, the female did not suffer from _zeza'ku_ , she was in a state of _su'hnom_ . She carried a new life, most likely from the male _ghomon_ she spoke of before, when he had found her it had been too early to detect it.

-”What? What happens?” Rarama asked, she was worried about Bal's gesture, usually the hunter was concise, it was strange that he stood there thoughtfully.

He took his _h'rpe_ and beheaded the beast, stuffed the bleeding uncleaned trophy into a net hanging on his shoulder, and headed back home.

-”Come with me,” he said.

The way back through the jungle passed smoothly, although Rarama wondered at the deathly silence of her mentor. After all, the _Yaksa_ had always been discreet, revealing only what needed to be revealed.

Bal walked fast, the matter on his mind had to be resolved as quickly as possible. Although the little _ghomon_ was an excellent apprentice, he could not keep her much longer, he _had_ to return her to her homeworld.

_Su'rya_ 's eyes had already fallen on the purple horizon when they reached the clearing where Bal’s home and landing platform were. He continued straight towards the ship followed slowly by Rarama.

Bal pulsed a few commands on his wrist device and the ship's hatch hissed open, releasing a cloud of steam which illuminated the platform with an eerie green light briefly.

-"Where do we go?" Rarama asked, but Bal only motioned for her to enter. She stopped at the ramp.

"Not until you tell me what's going on," she insisted firmly.

Bal let out a scolding roar and pulled her into one arm. "You must go back to your world," the experienced hunter said.

-"What?!" Rarama exclaimed, surprised, "Why?!"

\- "This is no longer a place for you," Bal replied, unperturbed.

Ignoring the female's pleas, Bal pressed the buttons on his wrist and the interior display of the ship lit up, showing a field of stars. Rarama caught herself and looked closely at the images.

The screen showed two bright spots surrounded by four pale circles and a light green cloud. A red triangle marker blinked on the second of those spheres, Rarama's sharp mind quickly identified the points of light as Su'rya's eyes.

Bal punched in another command and a red line emerged from the triangular mark, stretching to the edge of the screen, the image zooming out to show many more points of light. Rarama couldn't identify any of them, but they seemed very far away.

At last, the point stopped at a small yellow sphere, the image rotated to fix the target in the center of the screen, and it was then that Rarama saw a distinctive pattern: she was looking at _Arudra_ , the celestial hunter. The seven points of light shining in the night sky, the line and the triangular marker originated from what would be the _Arudra_ ’s head*.

Bal pointed at the blue-green globe topped by a white cloak at the end of the ride. "Your home." The girl backed slowly toward the hatch intending to stay there, that was her world now. She didn’t want to go back!

-"No," she refused, shaking her head, "You brought me here, I suffered, I lost everything," Rarama raised the tone of her voice, "you taught me the way of the hunter, and now you just throw me out?!"

Bal remained silent, he continued to program the course back to Rarama's home planet.

She stepped out into the cool outside air. The stars, very different from those of her world, shone in shades of blue and white in the blue-green background of a nebula. It was a wild and dangerous place, yes, but also beautiful.

\- "It's time," Bal's voice echoed behind her.

-"Why?" she asked once more, "What changed?"

Bal clicked, he should tell her about the life she led in her womb, but he didn't know how she would react. He had learned about the _ghomon_ and their strong emotional ties with their partners, something that the _Yaksa_ found strange, Bal thought that would probably make her happy.

He extended an arm towards the young woman's belly, opening his hand, to let her know...

Bright blue lightning streaked across the night sky between them, Bal roared as his arm below the elbow fell to the ground, phosphorescent green blood splattered onto Rarama's face.

\- o -

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glossary
> 
> a’dnam: \a'•di•nam\ - Day, Planet cycle.
> 
> bal': \bal'\ - Powerful, having great power or strength. Mighty, strong.
> 
> cetanu: \ke •ta•n ů\ - Grim reaper, a personification of death. From PIE katha \kə•tha\\. Dead, the one whom nothing remains but his life-story, and suf. -nu /nů/ a tool, device or implement. Black Warrior.
> 
> ci’kitsa: \ci’•kēt•tsä\ - Medikit, a box containing equipment needed to give immediate medical help in an emergency.
> 
> dawon: \da•wōn\ - Sacred lion. Unknown carnivorous synapsid (unk. sp.), Massive feline-like body with four powerful mandibles and four eyes.
> 
> ghomon: \hw•ō•man\ - Human, bipedal primate mammal (Homo sapiens sapiens) native from planet Earth (Sol III). Humanity, the totality of human beings. The human race.
> 
> gho’ra: \hw•ō’•ra\ - Terrible, violent.
> 
> h’rpe: \ha’•rpe\ - Scimitar, a saber having a curved blade with the edge on the convex side.
> 
> j’yok: \j’•yōk\ - Emotional expression of approval, joy or victory. A formula used to another person or persons when departing. Cheers!, Hooray!, Goodbye, Farewell.
> 
> kau’tika : \kaœ’•tē•ka\ - Trapper. Who specializes in setting traps and big game.
> 
> kitran: \ki•tran\ - Clear-mind, the ability to think clearly.
> 
> n’vara: \n ē ’ •vär•a\ - Mud. Muddy, covered in or full of mud.
> 
> raj: \raj\ - King. the male ruler of an independent state, especially one who inherits the position by right of birth. Royal. Belonging to royalty.
> 
> r’daya: \rē’•daya\ - Heart. muscular organ that pumps the blood through the circulatory system by rhythmic contraction and dilation.
> 
> su’hnom: \su'•nam\ - Conceive, bare a son/daughter. Pregnant.
> 
> sur’ya: \sur'•ēa\ - Sun. The parent star of a planet. Pl. Sur'ya n’tra \\-nē'•tra\ noun. Eyes of Su’rya, Twin stars.
> 
> yaksa: \yaœt•sha\ - Predator, Hish-qu-ten. Member of the species who had succeeded in all trials, a true hunter. f. yaksi \yaœt•shē\ Female yaksa.
> 
> zesa’ku: \zhe•sha’•ků\ - PTSD, is a mental disorder that can develop after a person is exposed to a traumatic event.
> 
> *Rarama is seeing the star Meissa (λ Orionis), a multiple star approximately 1,100 ly away, surrounded by a ring of nebulosity thought to be the remains of a supernova explosion.


End file.
